Archive for the ‘Ford Custom’ tag

What might an animator’s dream job be? To work for Pixar or Disney? Maybe Marvel? How ’bout getting to scribble away on the longest-running television show – animated or otherwise – in American history? Such was artist Mark Ervin’s lot for 23 years. In that time, he worked variously as animator, storyboard artist, assistant director and director on The Simpsons as well as on Rugrats, Rocko’s Modern Life and Futurama, this last, by the way, inspired by the futuristic world imagined by GM mid-last century. But where does a creative fellow go from there? Why, back to the drawing board, of course!

Mark’s been drawing since he could hold a pencil, and because he’s been a car guy for just about as long, that means he’s pretty darn good at doodling our favorite subject. “I no longer have the tongue out, making rev-rev engine noises,” he laughs, “I’m more thinking about the technical aspects of the cars.” In the June 2015 issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines currently hitting mailboxes and newsstands, we get into Mark’s backstory, but here, in the wide-open spaces of the Internet, where there’s no such thing as page counts, and everything is in full, luminescent color, we get to dive into his automotiveart.

This is how all of Mark’s full-color art starts: as a quick “blue-line” sketch, rendered wholly from his imagination and usually in less than an hour. Because he’s blessed with what is very nearly a photographic memory, sketching at such a high speed allows him to release the unique essence and energy of each vehicle he draws. “My challenge at the blue-line point,” he explains, “is to get all the energy, to get everything out of the drawing as fast as I can… I just keep going fast. I take a breath maybe every 10 minutes.”

Though the next phases in the process of rendering a finished full-color work of art are done using an electronic pen and a computer instead of their traditional counterparts in the physical world, the procedure of experimenting with color and line is no less inspired, artistic or arduous than it was when humans began painting on cave walls in France 30 millennia ago.

Mark explains that for years, employing a computer to draw cartoons had been looked down upon, and when people first started using them in that way, he asserted that he would never render on a computer. “It’s too fake. It’s too easy of a tool.” he had thought. “And at that time, I didn’t know anything about it.” Though he admits now that he had seen “a glimmer of possibility.”

Then, while Mark was working on The Simpsons, technology developed sufficiently enough to where it became possible to create images that looked hand-drawn and colored, and, what’s more, it allowed animators to experiment in ways that their tight time constraints would never have permitted before.

“When we started using the computer, you could manipulate the positions of the vehicles more easily, and when we were doing the storyboards using the computer, I got good at it… I don’t want my drawings to look like Vector drawings [drawings made using a particular piece of graphic software]. I still want them to look like they were done with traditional media.”

As you can see in the three images above, a cartoon illustration—both when created in the traditional way or using computer software—is comprised of several transparent layers, or “cels.” The quick blue-line sketch, gets traced over in black on another cel, incorporating corrections and refinements informed by studying reference photos or one of his 100-plus models, while another layer is “blocked” [“painted”] with color.

The final, full-color rendering is the sum of countless changes made across the various layers. Even with a computer, this is labor intensive, taking between 40 and 60 hours to complete. Think about it: A single piece of art could require one-and-a-half 40-hour work weeks to finish!

This colorful piece is titled “Henry J’s Dream” and is part of Mark’s Dreamer Series. It depicts, parked in a used-car lot beneath the familiar glow of an “OK USED CARS” sign, one of the short-run Henry J’s manufactured by Kaiser in the early Fifties. Despite having to share the stage with showier, more formidable automobiles, this Henry J isn’t downhearted, not by a long shot. Rather, he’s dreaming big.

Mark shares the thinking behind the rendering: “So, it’s sitting on a car lot, dreaming of being an all-balls drag car. It hits a specific genre: the middle of the gasser time, right as it was going into the Seventies, where those light bodies were getting used less, but the paint was getting more flamboyant… I thought it would be fun to do it from the perspective of this little plain-Jane dude on a used car lot…”

As a professional animator and director creating successful cartoons for television, Mark got very good at being able to tell stories visually. In this blue-line drawing of another work in his Dreamers series—this one, entitled “Wendell’s Car”—Mark very economically plants the seeds for an entire narrative:

The greaser, a likable car guy who many of us can probably see ourselves in, has just written a check. He beams as he daydreams about how he will customize his 1949 Merc and cruise it around with pride, showing it off to the guys, maybe taking his best girl to a movie in it.

While the original owner, a kindly old lady, rests her hand fondly on its fender—her face, that unique mix of happiness and sadness that comes from thinking about sweet times in the past spent with loved ones… Maybe her husband (the “Wendell” of the title) of many years who would normally have been the one to do the business of selling the car, but who has since passed… Perhaps children, and, later, grandchildren, kicking the back of the seats in the two-door, as they all rode along the town’s tree-lined streets to ballgames, church, amusement parks, graduations, weddings, funerals, births…

See Mark’s rare gift? From this one, spare sketch, an entire world—complete with characters, plot, a future and a past—stretches out, and even touches the heart of the audience on this side of the canvas.

There are few car guys who are as omnivorous in their appreciation for motorized wheeled vehicles as Mark, and his galleries prove it. From American muscle cars, station wagons, hot rods and trucks, to sports cars, coupes, sedans and even microcars from all over the world, he loves and draws them all. In doing so, he uses the unique techniques of the cartoon to not only bring out the individual character of a car, but in commissions, to even echo elements of the character of the owner him- or herself in their car.

This isn’t quite caricature, but it’s related, and Mark takes inspiration for drawing his vehicles and people from a variety of artists ranging from Michelangelo, whose sketches exhibit a flowing energy also present in Mark’s blue lines, to pinup artists of the ’40s and ’50s, like Bill Medcalf and those whose work featured in and Sports Afield and Field & Stream, to Disney cartoonist Fred Moore (who was also known for his style in drawing pretty girls) and Chuck Jones, of Looney Toons fame. The influence of these artists is especially evident in Mark’s female characters as in the above picture titled “’62 Beetle.” He thinks, “She may be one of the more appealing models I’ve drawn.”

Springing from his own childhood dream of designing cars, Mark’s reverence for those who had the vision and the talent to create exceptional automobiles is always present, and few cars can be considered more exceptionally beautiful than the 1931 Cadillac V-12, with its semi-custom body, seen in the early commissioned piece above.

Mark doesn’t just appreciate automobiles; he’s rather fond of people, too. And with a Midwestern personality that is as easygoing as it is hardworking, Mark seems to have managed to hold onto a childlike wonder and sense of humor. When these traits combine with his sensitivity and life experience, the result is artwork like the one above, called “Norm’s Send-Off.”

Norm Grabowski, known to many as the “Father of the T-bucket” for his Kookie Car and his influence on the world of 1950s hot rodding, passed away on October 12, 2012. “I did the original sketch,” Mark remembers, “the day news was released of his death… After posting it on the HAMB, Norm’s niece Mary contacted me and commissioned a finished version … for a show board and his memorial gathering.”

Below you’ll find a gallery containing a broad selection of Mark’s work. Just imagine that the Sunday funnies—or “edumacation” as my dad calls them—came a couple of days late, and spend some of your Tuesday smiling at them. And to prove that great art can be affordable, we’re actually going to list the prices right here: Prints begin at around $20 for 14 inches x 17 inches, $35-$50 for larger prints and $140-$150 for limited-edition, signed Giclèe prints. Commissions begin at around $150 for pencil renderings, $550-$1,500 for full-color renderings.

To see more or to purchase, visit Mark’s website by clicking here. You may also contact him by calling 402-887-2280.

Way back in 2005, we spotted a custom station wagon with Rolls-Royce front sheetmetal grafted to it sitting outside the Bonhams auction at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum and took a couple of snapshots (above), but never found out any more about it. Fortunately, for our curiosity’s sake, it recently popped up for sale on Hemmings.com, described as a 1971 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow based on a Ford Custom Ranch Wagon. From the seller’s description:

The ultimate utilitarian vehicle. One of eight professionally built using authentic R-R grille, fenders, bumper, badges, etc. All metal. Rust- and accident-free. Stored winters. Quality restoration. Georgian silver over Regal red. Interior features R-R dash finished in bird’s-eye maple with matching door cappings. R-R Nardi steering wheel. AM-FM/CD with six-disc changer. Power antenna mounted rear. Updated A/C. Black leather bucket seats, front, bench, rear, with red piping, Wilton carpets, Mechanics stock Ford updated as needed. New 400 CID V-8 installed within the last 1,000 miles. A great addition to any Rolls-Royce collection. All the pleasures of living the Rolls-Royce life with no service issues.

Every car has a story, it’s just that some of those stories are forgotten as the cars pass through new owners. Fortunately, the story of this 1949 Ford Custom for sale on Hemmings.com remains with the car, adding another dimension to its personality. From the seller’s description:

Meet Maggie! Maggie is an all original 1949 Ford two-door with only 42,000 original miles. This is because her original owner, Aunt Margaret, got sick and put Maggie in a Shed in Parker AZ (dry so no rust) in 1956; she was not pulled out of the shed until Aunt Margaret died in 1998. Her nieces and nephews kept Maggie to drive around for fun when they vacationed in Aunt Margaret’s house down by the Colorado River. She incurred a few scratches and dents but was kept in tip-top running order and was well loved by the family until I recently bought her. I almost kept the original paint due to the nice patina, but there were just too many scratches and small dents, so I treated Maggie to full bodywork and paint job still to the original color… But everything else on the car is in wonderful condition, so we left it bone stock. I gave this lady some fender skirts, but she did not need anything else… even the original AM radio works and sounds great. Best thing is the motor, original flathead V-8 starts right up and runs like a top, the three-speed on the column shifts smooth, and it brakes and steers like a two-year-old car, not an over-60-year-old car. I’ve had two other shoebox Fords that I thought were the best ever, but I doubt you could ever find an original ’49 or ’50 Ford as nice and original as Maggie. We will hate to see her go, but it is time she is enjoyed and taken to car shows to show her off.

There’s long been an appreciation among drag racers for the stripper look: That is, get a two-door post car and denude it of excess trim or gadgets, slap a set of blackwalls on steelies with pie plates, all in the “go, don’t show” philosophy. Indeed, this 1957 Ford Custom would have been one of the lightest Fords one could get that year (just five pounds heavier than the Thunderbird), yet it has the 190hp 272 V-8, a midrange selection in the Custom, making this car less a quarter-mile pounder than a simple, no-frills classic. From the seller’s description: